Adeline Altman

NORTH CALAIS - Adeline Furness Altman of North Calais died in her sleep on Sept. 8, 2010, in Petaluma, Calif.

Adeline was born in San Francisco Jan. 10, 1913, the only child of the former Adeline Ervilla Brown of Buena Vista, Colo. and James Wilson Furness of Philadelphia, an engineer with the U.S. Bureau of Mines. Raised in Buena Vista, Biarritz (France), and Washington, D.C., where she made her debut in 1929, Adeline graduated from the Holton Arms School for Girls in 1931, and Bryn Mawr College in 1935, with a degree in geology. She studied at the Washington School of Psychiatry and practiced as a therapist for many years in that city. She was married twice, to Richard B. Roberts, a physicist and biologist, and to Oscar L. Altman, an economist. Her roommate at Bryn Mawr and lifelong friend Elizabeth Kent Gay introduced her to Calais during their college days and Adeline bought a house originally built by Thomas Jefferson Ormsbee above Number Ten Pond in 1947, moving there full-time in 1978. As a Vermonter, Adeline was devoted to her gardens and generous in her support of many local families, earning in the process the affectionate soubriquet bestowed on her by Charles R. Cherington, formerly of Calais: "the angel of Ormsbee Heights."

She is survived by her daughter Juliet B. Roberts of San Fransisco, her son Richard F. Roberts of Los Angeles, and her son William H.F. Altman of Lynchburg, Va., as well as by six grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.

A memorial service in Calais is planned for June 2011.